Medicare and Dexcom - Where we're at

And this will be a problem when Tandem gets Predictive Low Glucose Suspend in the next year. I hope Medicare/Dexcom sort it out by then.

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Jimbo- you’re statement that Medicare requires a copy of the downloaded info from the receiver every 3 months is what I was referring to. There is no such regulation in the Medicare G5 coverage LCD.

Why you would waste at least 5 years of your life going through the Medicare appeals and courts system to get a pump covered that they don’t want to consider DME is beyond me. The Medtronic and Tandem pumps are perfectly fine to fit your needs. I have access to every pump on the market and wouldn’t choose omnipod if my life depended on it, unless they made a smartphone app to control the pod. Carrying around yet another thing doesn’t interest me.

I’m very sorry you’ve had such a lousy experience with Dexcom. You have to remember that they are new to this whole Medicare system. After liberty screwed everyone over, Dexcom could have just said ok, we give up. They stepped up and did not let any of their Medicare patients suffer because of what liberty did. Which by the way, most people people saw that coming a mile away before it happened. Why you don’t have a personal rep is part of the problem. I’m a Kaiser Permanente member, I get an email every 3 months from Dexcom asking me howany supplies I want, they’re overnighted the next day. This is how Medicare patients should be handled if my assumptions are correct.

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As most of us here know, Dexcom is new to Medicare. However, I’ve gotten my G5 from Dexcom, under Medicare and that’s after the Liberty Medical fiasco earlier this year. I waited throughout the summer to get the G5. Can’t complain. IF I have any issues with the second month of supplies, I’ll let ya’ll know. :slight_smile:

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Last I heard 19,000+ people asked Dexcom to send them a G5, like, now. That’s a lot of people. They were hiring and training like mad to get the job done and all the while Medicare kept updating the rules. I think Dexcom did and is doing a fabulous job and I’m ever so greatful they took on the task that nobody else wanted to do. Just my 2 cents.

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Well, I said I’d let you all know if I had issues with my second month of supplies.

I received the order-email on the promised date. Monday, the 9th. Shipment was supposed to be within a day.

I called at the end of business, on the 10th since I received no confirmation of shipment–just a “processing” message. During that call, the rep said it was an issue with my middle initial between Medicare and Dexcom and that they just fixed it and my order would ship out on the 11th FOR SURE.

The 11th came and went, and no shipping confirmation.

Today is the 12th. I called them bright and early to see what the status was and they weren’t really sure why there is a hold up. I wasn’t happy with the lack of an answer so I called back and was told that “yes”, orders should ship the same day as the day a patient responds to the ordering email that they send to us. No reason given for the delay. They said that even though Medicare and secondary insurance had “gone through”, there is a dexcom department that has the “final say” that all the insurance coverage is verified. they said I could try calling back in a few hours.

So far, I’ve called three times and still no answer as to why my shipment has been handled. The same issue is going on with my wife’s order–right down to the “middle initial is missing” excuse given on the 11th.

Today is already day 30, from when I received our initial G5 orders.

No great response except “Ugh!” and maybe some words that can’t be said of this site. Sorry you’re dealing with this. This is definitely a reason to use sensors a while longer than the 7 days so that you can get a stash and not have to go without sensors when Dexcom and other suppliers mess up. My longest-life-ever sensor just bit the dust at Day 30 yesterday. I had been accurate up until the point I got numerous gaps in data and lots of question marks.

Hope you finally get an answer from Dexcom or more importantly, sensors from Dexcom.

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Exactly, I’m getting way down on supplies and don’t like the uncertainty of when they are finally going to ship what they should have shipped by this past Tuesday, at the latest. So far this week, I’ve gotten one broken promise, and two non-answers as to when my order will ship.

I am militant when it comes to this issue. We are not talking about luxuries or niceties. Absent insulin and way to deliver it and monitor blood glucose, these are life and death supplies. I do everything in my power to insure that I run a sufficient diabetes supply surplus so that I’m not the one who suffers when these nameless, faceless, ignorant bureaucrats deny or delay my access to the medications I need to survive.

I can only wish that these titans of the health care status quo in the US would finally realize that if they removed this uncertainty, the whole system would work better with less cost.

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I just got FedEx confirmation on my order which will arrive on the 17th. My wife’s order is also on its way

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You must live in one of those private islands. Awesome.
:smiling_imp:

'Cause I know it never takes Fedex a week to get to my little hut in the middle of nowhere USA.

If it weren’t for the weekend it would be here 3 days from being shipped

Good Luck with it. Hopefully you are past all the hurdles and it can just flow month by month much more smoothly.

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